(Notes Taken of Lectures.)
Chap. 2
THE apostle still refers to his own personal history, and brings evidence that he did not look back to the law for righteousness. He says he went up to Jerusalem fourteen years after his conversion, when he was accompanied by Barnabas and Titus. Titus is not mentioned in the Acts. The apostle says he went up by revelation; the time was now come for him to do so. Had he gone at the instant of his conversion, persons might say he went there to receive his authority for apostleship. We find Paul, Barnabas, Peter, James, John, and all the apostles, meeting together, and this is the only one general council that the scriptural Christian can acknowledge. There have been many general councils, but not such as the scriptures recognize. He went up at the instance of Christians being disturbed by judaizing teachers; but he says, (5:2,) “I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach,” &c. When a person has received something direct from the Holy Ghost he wants no confirmation from others. A soul taught that he is ruined, lost, and undone, has the witness in himself, and does not want to ask others, “Is it so?” He finds the suitability of the truth of Christ’s work to his actual condition as a sinner. So Paul wanted not to be told what the gospel was, but he communicated it to those chief in authority, and privately to them which were of reputation, lest he should run, or had run, in vain. He got nothing from them, but he had the greatest possible comfort in finding them his fellow-laborers. The apostles were sent forth two and two, and the testimony of two men is a blessed confirmation. The apostle had the comfort of the other apostles throwing themselves into his work by giving to him the right hand of fellowship, though their commission was not to go to the Gentiles as his was. Titus was a Greek, but was not compelled to be circumcised. We find the apostle acting in quite a different way in the ease of Timothy. He circumcised him, though he said, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing,” &c. If you insist on it, I resist it; but he would not give needless offense. The cross of Christ is sufficiently offensive; but the moment it is said, “You must do so and so, the answer is,” No, Titus must not be circumcised, and I will prove Gentile liberty in not circumcising him, though I did Timothy. “It would be the same with the observance of certain days. Do you insist on my observing them? I resist it; but if by doing so I remove needless prejudice, I take it out of the way.
“Because of false brethren,” There were such in Paul’s time, and in the days of John there were “many Antichrists.” What must it be now? Then it was the exception to find among the guests a man without a wedding garment on. So the tares and wheat grow together, and they are so alike, that, until the harvest, it would require an experienced eye to discern the difference. The world has become one great tare field; so here false brethren predominate, persons not true to the Lord Jesus, though bearing His name. These teachers allowed that Jesus was the Messiah, but took Him up in a carnal way, and made Him sanction all their Judaism; and so now in the last days, the professing body around us, have their buildings, their temples, their priests, their offerings, their sacrifices. But we must remember one thing, ―that worldly religion tends to undermine our liberty, and to take us off the sense of our security as believers in Jesus, which all the powers of hell cannot prevail against. This blessed doctrine is also unpalatable to our natural hearts, ―because if our salvation is certain, it must be independent of man, and wholly of God. Assurance is the property of a believer in the Lord Jesus; it is God’s certainty, not ours.
Ver. 4. “To spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.” Most people are kept in bondage by their religion, which binds them down to certain obligations. As a people the English are very religions, but is their religion liberty in Christ? No: they are bowed down by their religious obligations to do certain things which are required of them, which they are glad to get over. Worldly religion is entirely unscriptural. Paul says, “To whom I gave place by subjection, no lot for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.” This expression is used with regard to one, by whom we should have little expected the truth to be undermined. So that we see a real disciple of the Lord Jesus, yes, even an apostle, he who first opened the kingdom of heaven to the Gentiles, for a moment undermining the truth of the gospel by his conduct. “Those who seemed to be somewhat,” i.e. persons in authority, “in conference added nothing to me.” Peter, James, and John, could add nothing to the revelation which the Lord Jesus had made directly from heaven to His chosen vessel, to bear His name to you and to me. He said on the contrary, “When they perceived the grace which was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship,” &c.; they who were counted pillars gave, &c. Sometimes the word “heathen” might deceive or mislead us. It is the same word in the original as the Gentiles of whom we are.
Ver. 10. The apostle Paul was forward in remembering the poor. He took a long journey to bring about a good understanding between the Jewish and the Gentile believers. We see from Peter’s visit to Antioch that he retained his natural character: there is a contrary principle, yet the natural character comes out. Peter was a frank, open-hearted man, not using his tongue to conceal the thoughts of his heart. I would rather have to do with such, than with a cautious man, who takes care not to commit himself at all. See Peter, sword in hand, cutting off the ear of a servant of the High Priest He wanted to please every one, and that desire might lead him to do many things contrary to the truth of the gospel. If Christians were to try themselves by this test, they would find themselves doing many things which, if analyzed, would be found contrary to the truth of the gospel. All of us have done many things contrary to it from a desire to please religionists. The most important principles often hang on a most simple act. Peter withdrew himself from dining with the Gentile converts to please the Jews. Paul knew that the gospel was a mighty leveler, bringing down Jew and Gentile to one common ruin. That truth was invalidated the moment Peter said he must not eat with the Gentiles, lest he should offend the Jews. So the Jews who believed did not confess Jesus, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Do we love our own party because it is ours, or do we love all Christians because they belong to Christ? To be a simple Christian, and nothing else, is to have no praise of men, because men generally want something besides the Lord Jesus to ornament and dignify them. If we go and ask for communion, it is not enough that we are Christians, something else must be attached to us, or we are not received. Peter did this in the very face of the revelation made to him that he was to call nothing common nor unclean. Peter now is calling the Gentiles “common.” If the blood of Jesus has not cleansed, and the robe of His righteousness has not covered all Christians, so as to make them fit company for one another, what can? “He withdrew, fearing them of the circumcision.” To this day the same bondage works very strongly in the hearts and consciences of real Christians. There are many persons who groan in miserable bondage, fearing them of the circumcision. Even the eon of consolation, Barnabas, was carried away with their dissimulation. Dissembling, ― a kind of hypocrisy, holding back the confession of what we are. Barnabas and Peter knew that only the blood of Christ cleansed from sin, yet they pretended to believe there was something to be had of the Jews. But when we are laid on a bed of sickness, what have we then? All that we have been contending for here falls away, like so many weights, and only Christ is left.
Ver. 14. “I said unto Peter before them all,” &c. It is a happy thing for us that Peter so failed; and do we not see the same Peter here? It is the same in us. When off our guard, nature is uppermost. “We who are Jews by nature,” &c. Is anyone a Christian by nature? No. This is a most important point. One born of Jewish parents, was a Jew; but none are bora Christians. We only become Christians by being born again. A Gentile by nature is an alien from the commonwealth of Israel. The Jews had great privileges by nature, ― hereditary rights. They were children of the kingdom―children of the prophets, and of the covenant―yet cast out. What a hard thing it is to take our proper standing―to know that our only hereditary character is sinners of the Gentiles. We have got into such confusion, that it is very hard to some to God’s truth, and take our place as sinners of the Gentiles. Our knowledge, as Jews by nature, says Paul, is, that “a man is not justified by the works of the law,” &c. We, the children of the prophets, even we have been obliged to cast ourselves on Christ. The Jews had been put by God under law, ―Gentiles never; as the apostle says, “To them who are without law, as without law,” &c.; yet the professing body of Gentiles, and even real Christians, put themselves there. We Jews, says the Apostle, have been obliged to come to Christ by faith. If I build up law again, I make Christ the minister of sin. I have no right, if I come to Him, to build my hopes on the law. I thus should constitute myself a transgressor, and make Christ &minister of sin. One of the phases of the deceitfulness of our hearts, is the legal tendency to which we are all inclined. Christ has brought in everlasting righteousness. It is not only a question of forgiveness of sin, but of righteousness. The Christian has a righteousness which fits him to appear before God. “I, through the law, am dead to the law,” &c. The law killed me, and that very law has been the means of my giving up all expectation from it; and so it will be with every heart and conscience that is rightly exercised. None can live man God unless the law is put out of the way; and until it is seen that the law has received its death blow in Christ, we do not see the “living way” opened up for us. There was the Most Holy Place, into which Israel could never enter.
Legality keeps us away front God, so also did the law. The question of the day is about altars, communion tables, &c. It is a real attempt to cut off Christians from God, by assuming that some, to the exclusion of others, have a right to go near to God. The law said, “Set bounds round about the Mount, charge the people, lest they come near,” &c; but now Gentile sinners are brought nearer to God than the priesthood under the law.
“I am crucified with Christ,” &c. I see here the judicial act fully recognized. The apostle Paul so fully entered into the doctrine of the cross, that he said, “I am crucified.” The doctrine of Peter was the same. “Forasmuch as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind,” &c. I may see myself under law, and that is miserable bondage. I see myself crucified with Christ, and that is happy liberty.
Paul says, “I live!” Is Saul, the Pharisee, dead, and risen up again? No, he says, “Not I, but Christ liveth in me.” It is a life which is death-proof, and comes out of death. After Christ is risen, I get a life communicated to my soul which death cannot touch. “The life which I now live.” It will be the same life, in heaven, but not in the flesh, having another life to contradict it, as it does now; but it will have all its tendencies upward, ―a life full of living water, springing up into everlasting life. This life can only eat heavenly food, it can only drink heavenly drink, its tendencies are ever upward, while the other life is beneath, with its temple, its worldly sanctuary, &c. Nothing so much hinders the tendencies of this life as the Jewish ritual. “I live by the faith of the Son of God:” and when it comes to living this life, it is as when one eats, he eats not for another but for himself, he feeds on Christ and says, “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” How blessedly the apostle brings us back to the great doctrine of the cross of Christ, and then if He has loved me, it is not to mix up law with the gospel. I know not a stronger expression than, “I do not frustrate the grace of God.” Meat Christians will agree in this, that their thoughts have only dwelt on the fact of remission of sins. I find life and righteousness inseparably connected. Righteousness is imputed. The gospel is not a system of negation, but of positive blessing. Why do Christians go to the law? because they want to get righteousness as an attainment. If such is the case, what need is there of the cross of Christ? How constantly persons pervert the gospel. They say, “Oh, I know I can do nothing of myself.” That is to say, I can do much, God helping me. The Lord Jesus puts the believer into a position of having a perfect righteousness; and “if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Is not the prevailing tendency of our hearts to self-righteousness hindering our intercourse with God? May we remember this point of the argument, and that by the works of the law no man shall be justified in God’s sight.